PUPILS at two North Lanarkshire schools could be tested for consumption of contaminated water, Nicola Sturgeon said today.

The First Minister said an independent review into blue water at Buchanan and St Ambrose High Schools in Coatbridge would be able to order further investigations if necessary.

Tests on the water have shown that it is safe, according to the local council and Education Secretary John Swinney, but parents and teacher unions remain worried.

Several current and former teachers at the schools, which were built jointly on a landfill site, have developed cancer.

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs: “Let me be clear: if the review’s experts conclude by recommending further tests on the site itself or, with the appropriate parental permission, on the pupils, that is exactly what will happen.”

Lisa McCormick, whose son Kian attends St Ambrose High, stated: “We want an independent investigation, we don’t want an independent review.”

She told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “We’re asking for new evidence. We need testing done on that site as of the state it is today, not looking at old evidence.

“We also want our children to be tested. There was no mention of that in the independent review. We want to know why our children and staff are being sick.”

Thirty-seven members of teaching union NASUWT at the two schools have voted for strike action while more than 13,400 people have signed a petition calling for an investigation and for staff and pupils to be tested for toxins.

But Mr Swinney instead told parents to ask doctors to test their children if they were concerned about their health.

Asked if he would drink the water at the school, the Education Secretary replied: “The water has been tested and has been assessed to be safe.

“At an earlier stage in the process, bottled water was available within the school because there was a concern about the quality of the water.

“Remedial action was then taken to replace internal piping within the school and the source of the water has been tested again and it met the appropriate standards.”

The review will examine health concerns, including possible exposure to unspecified chemicals in the water resulting from the previous use of the site, to see whether these are linked to the development of cancer.